


Understated

by Beckon



Category: Mortal Kombat (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Deal with a Devil, First Meetings, Flirting, Gathering Intel, Gen, Kenshi being a smug bastard, Little bit of lore, Watching fights, mk9
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-12 11:35:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28634844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beckon/pseuds/Beckon
Summary: Despite her own watching, her own observing, she certainly didn't like him returning the favor."Don't get so bold," Sonya retorted. "There's plenty of fights going on; I watch all of them.""Do you enjoy all of them?" Kenshi questioned."Hardly."
Relationships: Sonya Blade/Takahashi Kenshi
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	Understated

**Author's Note:**

> I love the idea of Tournament!Sonya/Kenshi, even though he was DLC and we have little to no information of how he acted at the Tournament. I just like the idea of a young!Sonya having to deal with a young!Kenshi, who was probably more open about being a bit of a bastard.

_Keep an eye on the competition._

_Keep a lookout for any suspicious behavior._

_Make note of anyone who so much as breathed out of line._

Sonya felt like she was more of a watchdog than a contestant these days.

Like she was here to watch out for Earthrealm's security rather than fight for it.

It unnerved her to some degree.

Actually, it just pissed her off.

But when it came down to Major Brigg's request, and Lord Raiden's back-up for said request, there wasn't much she could do to push back on it. She knew that gathering intel was the first step taken before any major decision could take place, before any major plans could even be considered.

The more they knew about their competition, about the Tournament as a whole, the greater upperhand they would gain over the other realms.

They could gain a previously unforeseen advantage in the fights to come, which would be a major push in Earthrealm winning this thing.

Unfortunately, the advantage would be for fights that she wouldn't be taking part in.

Sonya tried not to let the slow crushing disappointment get to her.

She wasn't even expecting to get an invite to the Tournament in the first place, and given her rank amongst the others, she was technically the rookie of the group. With exception of a certain sunglasses asshole, but he couldn't be trusted to remember a phone number, let alone inter-realm intel.

It was in her best interest to just appreciate that she was even here to begin with, that she was here to witness it all firsthand.

Still, she couldn't shake the thought that her only memory of being at the ultimate tiebreaker of the century would be as a witness rather than a participant.

Shaking her head, Sonya tried to physically detach the thoughts from her mind and shift her focus back onto the ongoing fight in front of her.

She had managed to get a good spot by the boundary wall, which allowed her to do some up-close surveillance on the latest Tournament battle; although she didn't think either of the kombatants were people she needed to focus on. She had a mental list of the big names, and none of them were showing up today, at least as far as the scheduling showed.

Sonya had witnessed a lot of fights come and go through the arena.

There were hardly many repeating fighters.

Most of them had either been killed in the arena, or outside of it by unknown means. It was one of the reasons why Major Briggs wanted a pair of eyes out in the crowd. Fighting was technically illegal outside of the scheduled hours, outside of Shang Tsung's watching- and yet, there was still plenty of it going around regardless.

A few too many fights ended up with bodies being discovered the next morning.

And with no one so much as blinking an eye at the discovery.

Sonya tried to be more vigilante about what was going on around her.

She tried to keep up with the lesser known fighters, to see if their names were ever called again- either in the arena, or in a body-claim announcement.

Of all the fighters she had witnessed so far though, one of them stuck out the most.

_Takahashi Kenshi._

Or at least, she was pretty certain that that was his name.

It was sometimes hard to hear over the crowd yelling.

She didn't have a lot of information on him and there wasn't a lot of official documentation that she could find on him either- not in Outworld at least. If she was back in Earthrealm, surrounded by her computers and servers, she could probably write a whole report on him without ever seeing him in-person.

But she wasn't in Earthrealm and she didn't have her gadgets with her.

So she resorted to a lesser known method.

She eavesdropped through the crowd whenever this Takahashi guy was up to fight and listened to whatever conversations were sparked by his appearance.

And for the people who seemed to know the most about him, she followed them around- as non-conspicuously as she could. Because whenever there was one, there was more. And on more than one occasion, Sonya had found herself listening in on gossip being passed around the crowded late-night bars.

It wasn't exactly her style of getting information, since there was no way for her to confirm the collected details.

But it was better than nothing.

Sonya watched as the current battle finally came to a crushing end.

There was no death this time, thankfully, and both kombatants departed from the arena.

She made another mental note to remember who they were and what they looked like.

There would be a minor break between fights, so that the Tournament guards could clean the arena before the next kombatants came out. It was something Sonya was still surprised they went the extra mile to do. But then again, given the aftermath of some of the fights she had witnessed, it was a necessity. After all, someone had to get out there to wash off the blood and pick up whatever pieces had been left behind.

It almost made her hate being here.

Sonya could hear the crowd behind her dispersing, but opted to stay where she was at.

It's not like she had anywhere else to be- and this was too good of a spot to give up.

"Here again, are we? Seems like you're quite the fan."

Sonya looked up at the words, fully expecting to see Cage given the remark, only to have to mask her surprise as Takahashi moved to stand next to her instead. He leaned in against the boundary wall in front of her, as though he hadn't just been on the other side of it less than an hour before.

There was less than a foot of space between them.

And she tried to figure out just how he had managed to keep himself so quiet on approach.

Especially given the ridiculous suit of armor he was plated in.

The man had been in the fight just before the one she was watching, and had racked up yet another victory for himself.

So had he left the arena to take some time to recover just to then join the crowd again to celebrate?

Given his remark, he seemed to have been watching her just as much as she was watching him.

So not only did he know that she was here, he just so happened to find her as well? Despite the large groups of people coming and going?

She didn't like it.

"I don't blame you," Kenshi mused.

Okay.

So she definitely didn't like him now.

Despite her own watching, her own observing, she certainly didn't like him returning the favor.

"Don't get so bold," Sonya retorted. "There's plenty of fights going on; I watch all of them."

"Do you enjoy all of them?" he questioned.

"Hardly."

As off-guarded as she felt by his sudden appearance, Sonya figured that now was as good of time as any to get some direct intel about the man- from the man himself. After all, he usually disappeared after his fights, and he was damn impossible to track down once he left the arena; she had tried to track him before, only to lose sight of him within minutes.

And given just how quietly he had appeared now, she could understand how an eyesore like him could vanish like that.

"What do you want?" Sonya point-blank asked.

Kenshi answered her with a shrug at first. "I was just curious about the woman who's been watching me," he gave in answer. "You're not like the others. I've never seen a woman like you from Earthrealm before."

Sonya rolled her eyes.

Christ, she figured going to Outworld would give her a break from that pick-up line.

And yet, it was apparently prevalent no matter where she went.

Elder Gods knew that movie star asshole had already tried to pull it on her once or twice- and that she had had to scorch some ground before he would get off her back about it.

Jax had warned her not to act so hostile though, especially here of all places.

The last thing they wanted was unnecessary fights getting started up- and one of them disappearing because of it.

But sometimes it was hard to bite her tongue.

"Don't get used to it," Sonya scoffed. "Aren't you supposed to be blind?"

From what she had gathered, the reason this Takahashi guy was so popular with the audience was because he was blind- or at least, because he claimed to be blind. And admittedly, she was a little surprised herself when she first saw him step into the arena with a red blindfold on. She thought it was a gimmick, like Cage and his priceless sunglasses.

But he still had the blindfold on even now.

And as up close as she was to him now, she could see that the material for it was fairly thick, which tossed out the possibility of it being thin enough to see-through.

"I am blind," Kenshi corrected.

"I find that hard to believe."

Sonya supposed, in some ways, she was baiting him along.

Baiting him into giving her some solid intel about himself.

Something of which he seemed oblivious to.

Kenshi chuckled in response before he turned to face her, showing off the amused curl at the corners of his lips.

Sonya watched as his fingers moved to the blindfold before he pulled it down in one go, in one effortless-looking motion.

And she felt a chill run down her back at the sight of white, scarred-covered eyes staring back at her.

His pupils were diluted and faded underneath the scar tissue, giving off a look she could only relate to soldiers who had been exposed to an early-exploding flash grenade. There were two small rings of blue that were just barely visible underneath the milky cloud of his eyes, implying that they had been blue just before whatever accident had occurred.

The skin around his eyes was pink and scarred.

They stretched out in patterns that closely resembled burns, but not to the deep-tissue extent.

"Do these look like eyes that can still see?" Kenshi asked.

As though the answer wasn't obvious.

The subtle churning in her gut at the question had her wondering if this wasn't the first time he had had to make a demonstration to prove his blindness. If this wasn't the first time he had had to make his disability known in order for it to be taken seriously.

He chuckled again, more than likely at her stunned silence.

"Has that curbed your curiosity?"

"It answered one question," Sonya admitted, "- but now I got a few more."

"Maybe later," he remarked with a grin, passing a wink at her, before he pulled his blindfold back up.

She noted that he was careful in readjusting the blindfold, ensuring that it fit exactly where it had been before he had moved it. Fingers smoothed over the front of it, before he ran them through his hair, smoothing it back just the same.

Kenshi turned to lean his back against the wall now, looking strangely at ease as he did so.

"You're watching the fights and listening to the crowds; I think you're looking for something. And maybe it's a coincidence that I'm always involved when you're around. I was just curious as to what you were doing here. This isn't exactly Earthrealm territory. And given the nine-of-ten losing streak, Earthrealm fighters aren't exactly welcomed here either."

Interesting thought process.

But she was already well aware of the tension here.

This was Earthrealm's last fight for sovereignty, to avoid a potential invasion from Outworld.

Needless to say, no, they weren't exactly welcomed with open arms here.

"Outworlder, are you?" Sonya asked.

"I've been spending a lot of time here, yes," Kenshi nodded, "but I'm originally from Earthrealm."

"Sounds like you're involved with something here too then," she remarked.

"I wouldn't phrase it like that," he assured. "I just felt like I needed a change of scenery."

Sonya rolled her eyes at the response. "I'm sure you did."

"So eager to prove me of guilt, are we?" Kenshi asked, although the grin on his lips seemed to frame the question as more of a tease. "Alright, I admit, I got into some trouble in Earthrealm. Got blacklisted, banned, exiled from a few places, so I figured I would go somewhere where no one knew my name. I figured I'd hang around for a little bit and let the heat die off."

She was pretty certain it was less of people knowing his name, and more of people knowing what he looked like.

"You got a track record then?" she asked.

"Something like that."

Sonya mused the remark over.

She was getting information on him, sure, but not the kind that she was expecting.

"So what's a guy like you doing at a place like this then? Getting involved in this kind of business?" Sonya queried.

"It sounded like fun," Kenshi answered. "I mean, you get some of the realms' greatest fighters to convene into one location, and then you get to spend the next couple of days beating the shit out of each other. Why wouldn't I want to get involved?"

Just when he was starting to reform the opinion she had had of him, he absolutely nuked it.

"Has the idea of a realm losing it's construction crossed your mind?" Sonya pressed.

"Sometimes, not often."

She scoffed once more and shook her head.

"Let me guess," he started. "Is that why you're here? You came to defend Earthrealm- and you probably came with a group of people as well."

"Yeah," she nodded. "I came here with a purpose- unlike some people."

"If your purpose is to kick someone's teeth in, it's still a purpose," Kenshi replied.

As much shit as the guy was talking, Sonya couldn't shake the thought that something about him wasn't sitting with her.

It wasn't so much what he was saying, but what he wasn't saying.

There was more to this man than what he was showing of himself, than how he was portraying himself to her. This wasn't the kind of shit that B-list actor pulled; this was something different, something on an entirely different scale.

Manipulation maybe.

He knew she was trying to find out information about him; he knew she had been here before, that she had watched all of his fights.

It was possible that he was trying to build up some kind of persona, some kind of facade with her, to try and throw her off his tracks.

Which only made him more suspicious, which only made him a greater target for her.

"Trying to figure me out?"

Sonya broke from her thoughts at the question and noted that he seemed to be looking off in the distance away from her. Or at least, if he wasn't blind and blindfolded, he probably would be. He seemed to just be mimicking the gesture of doing so now, probably from an old habit.

"What do you mean?" Sonya asked, setting herself up to play an equal game of acting oblivious.

"Telepathy," Kenshi answered. "Mind reader."

She didn't need him to explain what telepathy was to her.

But it was curious of him to do so.

And she highly doubted he was telling her the truth anyways.

"That gives you a bit of an unfair advantage in the arena, doesn't it?" Sonya pressed.

"You'd be surprised at how little it helps actually," he replied. "It's not as great as it sounds, really."

"You're lying."

"I am."

This was what she was telling herself about.

He was trying to mask a persona behind a mix of half-truths and half-lies.

It was frustrating, but at the same time, a little enlightening.

At least he was making her work for it.

It was the most entertaining thing she had done all day.

"Well at least you don't hide it," Sonya remarked, "- which is more than most people will admit."

"You don't believe me," Kenshi spoke, calling her out on the obvious- and quite quickly too.

"Of course I don't," she replied. "Why on Earth would I believe that the _one_ person I run into here, outside of my own team, just so happens to be a blind telepath? And that he just so happens to think that he knows what I'm thinking, when all he's really been doing is running around all of my questions."

Sonya watched as he scratched at his jaw.

With the blindfold on, she couldn't see much of his face, or read his expression to try and garner what he himself was thinking.

Which, admittedly, was a smart move on his behalf.

"Fair enough," Kenshi nodded. "But at least let me prove myself before you write me off."

"Sure, why not," Sonya offered. "We all have rights to a fair trial."

Her remark seemed to amuse him again.

"I may be blind, but I don't think my armor is an eyesore. And even if you think it is, it's not for visual purposes anyways. It's for protection- and given my predicament, I need as much secondary protection as I can get. And despite how it looks, it's really quite flexible- more so than most people think."

Sonya felt herself stiffen at the remark.

At having an earlier, cast aside thought thrown back at her.

"And I don't wear the blindfold to keep people from reading my face- although it is a nice perk to have," Kenshi continued. "In actuality, it's just because bright lights still hurt my eyes. But the blindfold does add a bit of mystery as to who I am, which I quite like."

"You're telling me that you're a blind telepath?" Sonya asked.

It sounded ridiculous when she said it out loud.

But not nearly as ridiculous as he looked standing next to her.

"If you've been paying attention to my fights, you'd know that I have another talent up my sleeve."

Sonya got the feeling that if the blindfold wasn't there, he'd pass another wink her way.

In fact, he probably still did, even if it wasn't visible to her.

"Jax would kill me if I brought you around, but I think he'd might actually be impressed by someone like you," Sonya remarked, musing the thought over.

She knew that the Special Forces were always on the look out for people of interest, for people of skill. Even Raiden said to keep an eye out for anyone that might catch her eye- and who might be willing to aid another realm. And given how chock full Outworld was of mercenaries and one-man armies, it wasn't out of the question to find someone who might be willing to join them.

She likened it to how Master Bo' Rai Cho and Li Mei helped out with Earthrealm, with the Shaolin, despite being Outworlders themselves.

A blind, telepathic telepath sounded like trouble in the making.

But also sounded like an unique, if troublesome ally.

"You thinking of taking me around to meet the family already?" Kenshi teased.

"You enjoy getting under people's skins, don't you?" Sonya remarked.

"Another hidden talent of mine, actually," he chuckled, before he turned himself to face her; one arm sliding a little too close to her own while he did so. "How about I be honest with you?"

"With me? What pleasure do I owe?" she retorted.

"See? I knew you and I would click."

Sonya rolled her eyes again, but had to admit that she was beginning to enjoy their conversation.

He wasn't as annoying as Cage was, and he wasn't nearly as strict as Major Briggs or Raiden.

And at the very least, it was someone new to talk to.

And since he was more involved in the arena than she currently was, she could use him as another source for inside information, for intel.

"I know you're here right now looking for something, looking for someone maybe. Even now, you're not just watching the fights to watch a fight. You're keeping track; you're listing names, but these aren't the kind of fighters that you would go up against yourself," Kenshi spoke. "You and I would never find each other in the same ring; we're not in the same jurisdiction, and nothing would come out it anyways. So you're not here for me, and you're not here for the fights."

"I'm sure you're heartbroken," Sonya quipped. "Where are you going with this?"

"The pain stings, but I'll live," he replied. "The fact is, I'm here looking for someone as well. And based on some of your observations, I think we both may be looking at the same person."

"It's a solid guess," she offered.

"I'm quite good at making them."

Sonya usually hated being ran around in circles, but given that their entire conversation had revolved around doing just that, she was getting used to it. Not to mention, given their situation, and location, it was best that they didn't give away too much information. After all, she still didn't know him and he still didn't know her.

There was no telling who was playing what side here.

But he had the guts to hunt her out and speak to her.

That had to mean something.

Then again, considering he could supposedly read her mind, he could trust her more than she could trust him.

Sonya moved a hand to his arm, catching him between the plates of armor and touching at the bodysuit underneath.

Surprisingly, the touch seemed to catch him off-guard.

She felt how Kenshi started to pull his arm away from her, and decided to tighten her grip on him.

"Well now, if that's the case, then what's a little fraternizing between kombatants?" Sonya asked. "If we're not bound to cross paths in the arena, then what's the harm in sharing a few secrets?"

She felt him somewhat relax underneath her grip now.

And caught the amused grin on his lips again.

"I like the way you think."


End file.
